Obama: Hands Off Social Security

Women need Social Security. Although they receive fewer benefits at retirement than men– men receive around $13,500 per year while women receive around $11,500– women need this safety net. There are several causes for women’s lower Social Security benefits at retirement. Women often leave the workforce to raise young children or care for ageing parents or spouses. Lower salaries during their lifetime also cause lower benefits. Many women over 65 straddle the poverty line and would not survive without Social Security.

In a recent article in We.news, Women to Obama: Hands Off Social Security, Susan F. Feiner, Professor of Economics, “watched President Barak Obama defend his handling of the economy” in a televised town-hall discussion. She says, “The President made a remark that should terrify the majority of Americans– especially women…about closing the federal deficit, he said that after you set aside “security spending”– whatever that may mean– the biggest part of the national budget is “entitlements. Ominously, he specified Social Security as one of those “entitlements,” along with Medicare.”

Feiner reminds us, “The health and dignity of women over age 65 depends on their continued receipt of monthly Social Security checks. Moreover, Social Security is not an entitlement program as it’s paid for entirely by payroll taxes. It is an insurance program, not an entitlement. Not one penny of anyone’s Social Security comes out of the federal government’s general fund.”the entire article is available in Women’s eNews.

Susan F. Feiner, is the author of Liberating Economics: Feminist Perspectives on Families, Work and Globalization (with Professor D. Barker.) She writes for Women’s eNews as well as on her own blog.

If you are counting on Social Security for all or part of your retirement income, educate yourself about this program started in 1935 under President Franklin Roosevelt. President Obama’s comment at the recent town-hall discussion did not come out of thin air. Jeffrey Liebman, President Obama’s Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget, worked on a Nonpartisan Social Security Reform Plan that advocated benefit cuts and an increase in retirement age. Be aware your benefits could be lowered or eliminated. If you’re concerned, then tell President Obama, “Hands Off Social Security.”

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